Labels

The road to the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019 is proceeding with great strides for the teams aiming to qualify, but also for the match officials. FIFA, in cooperation with the confederations, recently developed a revised list of 35 referee and 69 assistant referee candidates – representing all six confederations and 56 countries – for the biggest tournament in women’s football. The list of candidates takes into account several qualities, including game performances, football understanding and fitness, and for the first time at this stage of preparations for the Women’s World Cup, FIFA is announcing referee trios. This allows the referees to prepare as a team throughout the build-up to the tournament, and thus helps to improve overall performances. "This is an incredibly important step forward", Massimo Busacca, FIFA’s Head of Refereeing, explained. "It’s a further marker in the three-year process that started last year. In 2018, we expect to see improvement from candidates in terms of their fitness, technical knowledge and football understanding. We'll be testing them throughout the year and then selecting the best”. Former elite referee and FIFA’s Senior Manager of Refereeing Kari Seitz underlined the importance of the preparation for the selected match officials. “FIFA takes the development of all FIFA officials, male and female, very seriously. Only a limited number of match officials will be selected to officiate in the FIFA Women’s World Cup and selection will be based 100 per cent on quality”. The Women's World Cup will have "informal" trios, with an understanding that all trios are flexible. (Source: FIFA)